Last week, McDonald’s, the big fast-food chain, said they’d have a $5 meal deal for a short time to attract people who care about prices. Now, Burger King, another big chain owned by Restaurant Brands, is doing the same thing. They’re bringing back their $5 meal deal, called ‘Your Way Meal,’ like they agreed with their stores in April. Since the COVID pandemic, restaurants all over have had to raise their prices because stuff like food costs more, and it’s harder to get. But because prices keep going up, people, especially those with less money, don’t want to pay as much. Many restaurants have ..read more

Disney’s recent quarterly earnings report spurred volatility in $DIS shares, exceeding analysts’ projections. Notably, its entertainment streaming services, Disney+ and Hulu, marked their maiden profitable quarter. These services, excluding ESPN+, experienced a 13% revenue increase to $5.64 billion, with a combined operating income of $47 million, contrasting starkly with a $587 million loss a year ago. Including ESPN+, the streaming services recorded an $18 million loss, an improvement from the $659 million loss previously. This profitability surge owes to a surge in subscribers and increased ..read more

Apple’s stock rose by 6% on Friday after the company announced a huge buyback program following better-than-expected earnings in the second quarter. On Thursday, Apple revealed that it plans to buy back $110 billion worth of its own shares, which is 22% more than last year’s buyback plan of $90 billion. This move is the biggest share buyback in US history. I’ll say it again: This is the biggest share buyback in US history. The company’s revenue for the three months ending on March 30 was $90.8 billion, slightly surpassing analysts’ expectations of $90.3 billion. This company averages $1B a day ..read more

How to Take Advantage of Volatility We all know options can make profit when the price of the underlying stock or ETF rises, declines, or goes sideways. However, on top of this, they can also make you money if the implied volatility of the underlying asset rises or declines. Here are 2 trades you can use to take advantage of this and precisely when to use them. Rising Volatility Rising volatility causes the prices of options to rise. This is measured by Vega which tells you for every uptick in Implied Volatility or IV, how much with the price of the option will rise. My favorite trade to take ..read more

THE WEALTH FORMULA I’ve been called “cold and calculating”, but the truth is I simply recognize patterns, love numbers, and predicting future prices using models and frameworks that I’ve built over time. I will often share these numbers and predictions with confidence which makes me seem cold. My wife suggests I might be “on the spectrum”. But I have yet to be clinically diagnosed. Life is a journey of discovery and finding your best future self; even better if you can do it with someone you love and trust. Well, in my opinion, wealth is just one part of this puzzle, and I love solving it. I s ..read more

Ford is pumping the brake on making electric cars and focusing on hybrid cars for North America. They are delaying making their 3-row EV SUV and their new “T3” pickup truck. The delay is 2-3 years for each model. Ford is the second-biggest electric car brand in the U.S., after Tesla. But people in North America aren’t buying electric cars as fast as expected. This could be because there aren’t many places to charge them and they’re also expensive. Ford’s CEO, Jim Farley, says they want to make electric cars that make money and are good for the environment. They’re going to make a big electric ..read more

Tesla was the biggest loser in Q1 During Q1 2024, Tesla experienced a significant downturn in stock performance, making it as the primary casualty within the S&P index. Market analysts attribute it to the anticipated release of disappointing production and delivery figures by Tesla for the quarter. Additionally, the implementation of price reductions across various Tesla models is expected to impact corporate profitability. According to data from FactSet, 11 analysts covering Tesla anticipate the company to announce approximately 457,000 deliveries for the period. This projection only refl ..read more

When it comes to investing and finance, there are 2 things I look for: the pricing power of the company and does it have a liquid options market. When I can combine these two together, I can make better trading and investment decisions. Let’s dig into each: The Power to Price Your Product Investors who identify companies with robust pricing power is akin to discovering hidden gems – enterprises poised for sustained growth and profitability even in the face of market volatility. This can allow the company to get through tough economic times and increase profitability during the good times. Deci ..read more

Apple Cancels Their EV Project Apple has decided to stop working on its electric car, which they started about ten years ago. Their stock went up 0.7% after this announcement. Some employees who were working on the electric car will now work on artificial intelligence instead. Makes sense as this is more inline with their total product offering. Because interest rates have gone up to control inflation, people aren’t as excited about buying electric cars, which tend to be more expensive. This has caused some companies to cut jobs and make fewer electric cars. Big car companies, like Tesla, are ..read more

Nvidia Makes the Pass into #3 Last year saw a huge surge in artificial intelligence (AI) development, and the momentum continues. This week, Nvidia ($NVDA) climbed to become the third most valuable publicly traded company in the U.S. based on market capitalization, surpassing Amazon. On Wednesday, Nvidia’s stock rose by over 2% to reach $739 per share, pushing its market cap to $1.83 trillion. At that time, Amazon’s market cap was around $1.78 trillion, and Alphabet ($GOOGL), Google’s parent company, stood at $1.82 trillion. Nvidia now only trails Apple ($AAPL) and Microsoft ($MSFT). Not too ..read more